Adoption
"What do you say to your child that isn’t legally your child when he reaches out to you in need of something you aren’t sure you’re allowed to give him?"
"The vast majority of the now 5 million adoptees in the United States have no right to our original birth certificates, our medical histories or to any information regarding our identities."
"I’ve realised that family isn’t always something you’re born into."
"To everyone else, we looked like the perfect family. No one outside our home knew what we knew."
"Now a mother myself, I often think about the emotions that must have swirled within my birth mother during her pregnancy."
"Audrey had been found in an abandoned house in Texas with a spinal injury and both of her back feet severed. ... Her story broke my heart."
"Was this why I could never shake that lonely gnawing in my belly when I was growing up? Was she the reason?"
"I was getting older and was running out of options. I was 40 and wanted to be a mother."
"My mum called me and I heard a strange, nervous excitement in her voice. 'I’m not sure how to say this,' she said. 'Your dad has been keeping something from you.'"
"The longer we waited, the more anxious I became. If we didn’t tell her soon, I feared it could do lasting damage to our family."